A Taste of Life
by Cecelia S. Bradley
Summary: LBD: She had opened his eyes. Now all he wants to do is close them and forget. -a love story gone wrong, in drabble form


It's the way her eyes light up when she talk about her sisters that catches his eye first.

Darcy would definitely say that he drifted from one lovely lady to another much too quickly, but it was impossible not to notice her in any room, with her red hair and those sparkling eyes. He'll admit that's not where he usually looks first at a woman, but her face answered questions he didn't even know he had. And as much as he loved Caroline, she didn't always make him brighten up.

And then he hears her laugh. Why he had bought the house suddenly makes sense

Of course, the situation isn't quite ideal. After all, her mother… She persevered. She was a persevering woman, that's all. And her youngest sister was simply happy to be alive and her father an admirable eccentric. He's willing to write anything off for her.

He falls in love with the little things first, the way her shoulders heave when she's telling a story or imitating Lydia and the continual questions about whether he wants tea or some cookies or a hug. (He eventually learns to accept all of the above.)

Sending flowers is the least he can do.

After that,he tries to stay around her as much as possible because, even when she's not there, she haunts his thoughts. He'll put up with and even enjoy anything: dinner at her house (her mother made him laugh and he actually didn't like soy sauce in the first place) and a bar unlike anything he'd ever visited before. She made him pull out the stops, but for some reason, the release felt good.

Of course it isn't easy. Caroline reminds him every day of ex-girlfriends with more desirable social standing and, while Darcy tries to be a good guy and not say anything, he can't miss the suspicious glances his best friend keeps offering. But life seems to get better when she and Lizzy visit.

And stay.

Even as he jokes about being a doctor, he finds himself questioning his future in medicine. She had awakened something in him with her energy, her quiet energy that sparked to life whenever she had the chance to do something good. He notices the way her eyes flit around a room to see if anyone's uncomfortable and how she tries to come up with a positive in any situation. Surgeries and bypasses no longer make sense if they mean bypassing a way into her life, or a way into life at all.

Sometimes he wonders if she feels the same way, but he never stops to question.

They go to the local animal shelter together one day, and while he's always preferred examining humans, his eyes open to the fact that so much of the world isn't doing as well as he is. She shows him that even stopping to notice makes a difference. Of course, like any guy, he wants to change the world, butwhen a beagle's tail starts wagging as soon as he pats its head, he wonders if people could maybe respond the same way.

He casually mentions the idea of taking a break from medical school to volunteer somewhere in San Francisco to Caroline. She might as well have spit on him.

He tries to tell himself that she's a bad influence, that she's keeping him from his future, but he knows it's a lie and quits trying.

Until the party.

Darcy and Caroline start pointing out to him all the times when he'd gone all out to show her his love and she had just smiled and blushed, the way that she was just about as friendly to him as anyone else. They tell him she's just a nice girl. They tell him she doesn't care.

If you hear a lie long enough, you believe it.

She had opened his eyes. Now all he wants to do is close them and forget.

He buries himself in medical school, the one area she hadn't utterly transformed, but nothing stirs any life in him. And since his sister's smiling at him much more often now and Darcy tells him he made the right choice, he wills himself to be contented with what he has. Fairytales are fairytales. She built him a castle, but it could have been fairydust. He tells himself mundane's okay if it's safe. He hopes she's happy now.

(He hopes she misses him too, but he tells himself she deserves all the best he can give.)

If you love someone, you'll let them go.


End file.
